AS A former Sale Sharks coach, Steve Diamond is well aware of the potential gold mine of rugby talent in North Wales.

And it’s that talent that he will be wary of when he oversees Russian outfit Enisei’s match against RGC 1404 at Eirias Park tonight (7.30pm).

Diamond is currently Russia’s head coach and has helped lead the rugby minnows to the World Cup next year for the first time in their history.

However, he will be a keen observer tonight as Enisei take on a North Wales side brimming with Canadian professionals and lead by former Grand Slam- winning coach Clive Griffiths.

“I’ve been checking up on RGC’s recent results,” said Diamond. “They’ve beaten Guinness ‘A’ league teams Worcester and Sale, so I’m looking forward to a good game.

“Last season I brought VVA Monino (another Russian side) over and we won by a fair distance, but with the Canadian players and under the guidance of a coach like Clive Griffiths they seem to have developed massively in a short space of time. I’d love to see RGC 1404 come over to Moscow for a game one day.

“I played for and coached Sale and obviously North Wales is right on their doorstep.

“From what I’ve seen there has been no development taking place in the region and it seems logical to put some finance into the area to develop players for the future of Wales. Eifion Lewis-Roberts is a good example of the talent available.”

Diamond is also a big advocate of the Canadian influence in North Wales rugby, which he believes to be of massive mutual benefit to both regions.

“Russia lost by 15 points to Canada in November last year when we toured and they have some good players,” added Diamond. “I think it is a good idea to send the Canadians over and I’m sure you will see the reciprocal benefits coming through for both the North Walian and Canadian players.”

While Diamond will have one eye on the development of rugby in North Wales, he is clearly more concerned with the form of the Russians.

The nation qualified for the World Cup only two weeks ago despite losing in the final of the European Nations Cup, and will play their matches in next year’s tournament in New Plymouth, Rotorua, Nelson and Christchurch in the same pool as USA, Italy, Ireland and Australia.

And for Diamond the build-up to next year’s competition has already begun.

“Russia qualified for the World Cup two weeks ago, which is a first for the country and a massive achievement,” he added. “The top league has 12 professional clubs and I would say the standard is similar to that of the top teams in the Welsh Premiership.

“We have achieved our initial goal of qualifying for the World Cup and the next is to break into the world’s top 12 teams by 2015. However, this is a very tall order as our budget is extremely small at the moment, approximately half of Italy’s, so we are looking at developing the grass roots game.

“In Russia, you do not do any sport in school as it is purely focussed on academic work. Any sports have to be done outside of school.

“The Russians like contact and strategy and with us qualifying for the World Cup and rugby also becoming an Olympic sport benefactors are starting to come on board. One of the current benefactors is involved with media and so most top games are shown on TV,which is increasing rugby’s popularity.”